Kerry Ellis to Take Over Role of 'Grizabella' in West End's CATS in February?

According to the Daily Mail, Kerry Ellis is next in line to portray 'Grizabella' in the West End revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats at the London Palladium.

Rumor is she will begin performances February 9 after current star Nicole Scherzinger departs the role for previous commitments.

Ellis has appeared on and off in WICKED in both the West End and on Broadway since the mid-2000s. Among her other West End credits are MY FAIR LADY, WE WILL ROCK YOU, LES MISERABLES and OLIVER!, as well as the national tours of MISS SAIGON, CHESS, THE WAR OF THE WORLDS and RENT.

Based on T. S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, the original creative team - Director Trevor Nunn, Associate Director and Choreographer Gillian Lynne, Designer John Napier and ComposerAndrew Lloyd Webber - are reunited to bring CATS back to the West End this Christmas.

On just one special night of the year, all Jellicle Cats meet at the Jellicle Ball where Old Deuteronomy, their wise and benevolent leader, makes the Jellicle choice and announces which of them will go up to The Heaviside Layer and be reborn into a whole new Jellicle life.

CATS, one of the longest-running shows in West End and on Broadway, received its world premiere at the New London Theatre in 1981 where it played for 21 record-breaking years and almost 9,000 performances. The production was the winner of the Olivier and Evening Standard Awards for Best Musical. In 1983 the Broadway production became the recipient of seven Tony awards including Best Musical, and ran for eighteen years. Since its world premiere, Cats has been presented in over 30 countries, has been translated into 10 languages and has been seen by over 50 million people world-wide. Both the original London and Broadway cast recordings won Grammy Awards for Best Cast Album. The classic Lloyd Webber score includes Memory which has been recorded by over 150 artists from Barbra Streisand and Johnny Mathis to Liberace and Barry Manilow.